十隻小豬

從台灣飄洋過海的來到我們家

Zozo已經霸佔了穿和服的一對

Bobo搶走了黑色小公豬

其它的趴在廚房冰箱上伴我做飯

謝謝夏滿常常記得我

夏天回美一定要來作客喔!

一年級戶外教學

旅遊完第二天, 我就陪著Zozo的班級去了學區和市政府合辦的Outdoor Science Learning Center. 那裡有很多不同種類的動物, 戶外還有各種不同的植物, 讓小朋友們有很多hands on experience. 聽別的媽媽講, 好像每個班級每年都會去一次. Bobo的班級還沒去過, 所以我還有一次機會去參觀.

專心聽講員的小女生
這次一年級生要學習將動物分類(classify), 還有在戶外identify different plant parts. 在戶外的時候, 因為要走trail, 還要控制小朋友, 就沒拍照了.
動物可以分成七個種類.
最恐怕的動物就是蛇了! 好多小朋友都不敢去摸.

這次的戶外教學蠻不錯地, 連我都學了很多東西, 還有一些德州的植物. 很期待下次的教學.

4 Day Cruise to Cozumel

應朋友之邀, 我們上禮拜去坐輪船渡假了四天三夜. 星期四一早我們出發開車到Houston. 吃了午餐後, 再開到Galveston的港口上船. 下午五點開始航行, 星期六一早抵達Cozumel. 下船後, 我們參加了一個beach excursion在海邊玩幾個小時, 然後在當地的mall逛了一下就到了上船時間. 五點準時開始回程到星期一早上七點半靠岸. 下船後我們再去Houston吃了一頓就打道回府了.

我們離開的那天天氣很差, 一整天都陰陰地, 氣溫也很低, 往Galveston的路上還開始下大雨. 這是開船前港口的景況.

我們的房間有一張大床, 還有兩張pull down床. Bobo睡在我們床腳的左上方, Zozo的床卻在我們床的正上方, 剛看到時我們還真的嚇一跳! 不過躺下去後,就覺得還好. 我到了最後一個早上才撞到一次, 實在很痛, 因為床腳很尖. 第一天在船上我們都有點暈船, 還好不是很嚴重沒有人吐, 再來就好了.第二天在海上我們帶小孩子到處走走, 曬太陽又跑去游泳,不過水蠻冷地. Zozo和Bobo買了兩個超貴的飲料, 為了那椰子雕刻成猴子臉的容器, 就讓他們留著作紀念.Cozumel是一個島, 到處都是關光客, 我們不想逛街就帶小孩子去一個叫Playa Mia的海水浴場. 風景真的很美, 海水看起來好清澈, 氣溫剛剛好, 不會太熱, 小朋友玩得不想離開.
他們兩個又撿了一大堆石頭和貝殼, 這次我只讓他們帶一點點回家. Bobo還找到這塊心型的石頭, 他跑去玩之前把它埋在沙裡藏起來, 可惜後來離開時匆匆忙忙沒時間去找出來了.

每次去海邊玩一定要做的事.

Sunset at Sea

最後一天我們就沒照什麼相片了, 因為都差不多是一樣的東西. 我們大概不會再選擇去cruise了, 如果還要的話, 一定要仔細看有什麼東西可以玩才去. 這次的船是一艘"fun ship," 只是我們不喝酒,不抽煙, 不賭博, 不熬夜, 有小朋友不適合去跳舞, 所以實在沒有那麼"fun!" 加上我下船之後到現在都覺得還在晃還有migrain, 這幾天都靠ibuprofen在過日子, 老公在網上查說這種症狀叫作disembarkment syndrome, 有些人幾年之後都還在晃, 看了嚇壞我了, 希望我會快快好起來.

Chaos in the House

our family room was really lived in!

so after having the kids home for two weeks straight during winter break plus several playdates later, the house was totally trashed. everywhere i turned, there were toys. i was paralyzed by the amount of mess in the house and walked around dazed and depressed for awhile. however, i have this strange need to have the house in good order before we leave the house for any period of time. i just like walking into a clean house after a vacation because no matter how fun the vacation was, we are always exhausted as soon as we step into our own homes. there's also a more morbid reason for my need to clean but i won't share that here. this is what the playroom looked like before we tackled it. we couldn't walk into it without stepping on or tripping over something.

so the day before we left for our cruise, i went into mrs. clean mode. the children had to chip in and help since school was cancelled due to foul weather. we organized, simplified, wiped down, and vaccummed as much as we could stand. the final result was so good that i was glad we were leaving early in the morning. no chance for anyone to mess it up for a few days.
the somewhat organized playroom. too bad, it doesn't really look like this anymore. as soon as the kids got home from our trip, they headed into this room.

下冰雨

這週末變天, 氣溫降到攝氏零度左右, 又不停得下雨, 害我們哪裡也不想去, 窩在家裡看小說和DVD. 才下了幾個小時, 樹枝上真的都結冰了, 像一棵一棵水晶樹, 好美喔!

我們家前面的樹--結冰後樹枝都彎下了.
整條街都是這樣, 其實應該說, 整個城市都是這樣.

今天上教會時路上拍的照片, 臭Bobo都一直躲起來, 不好好照.

我們又被德州的媒體騙了, 早上一起牀看電視就被新聞報的路況嚇一跳, 還有很多教會也取消聚會, 我們以為真的不能出門, 打電話發現大家都已經在路上了, 到了教會, 朋友還問我們明明就是從密蘇理來的, 為什麼還會為這麼一點雨擔心?! 其實聖路易市下蠻多雪的,可是我不記得有什麼冰雨, 不過下次這裡再變天,我一定不看電視新聞了.

Kdg Dramatic Play Centers

at the beginning of the school year, i signed up to volunteer in a lot of areas in the kids' grades. one of the things that i signed up to do was to set up the kindergarten dramatic play centers. at first, i thought the kindergarteners were going to have a play and volunteers would help to set up the stage. this, however, turned out to be something completely different.

in the kindergarten wing of the kids' school, there are common areas called centers that are set up to allow all the kindergarteners to experience different types of learning. there's a reading center, a math center, a blocks center, and an art center. two of the areas are designated to be the dramatic play centers. these centers are set up as different scenarios to allow children to play pretend and foster their imagination. i, along with several other mothers, change these centers every 6 weeks to allow the kindergarteners to pretend to be different characters. at the beginning of the year, one of the centers is a travel agency and was filled with brochures, maps, and globes to allow the children to pretend to be travel agents and also learn about different parts of the world. the centers have evolved from a home setting, fire station, winter wonderland, and gift shop.

the most recent set up was a vet's office. there are lots of pretend medical equipment in the exam room on the left. there are robes for the kids to dress up to be a vet. the waiting room if filled with animal puzzles and books to learn about animals. we also set up a recovery room that's not visible in the picture for the children to care for the animals.

the other play center was transformed into a post office. there's even a pretend mailbox for the kids to mail their letters off. we've placed a directory, envelops and writing tools for the kids to learn to address envelops. there's a chart with valentine's vocabulary not shown in the picture for the kids to make valentines to send off to loved ones.

while we were taking down the old stuff and putting up the new ones, kids kept walking by whispering excitedly about what we are going to do next. it's so great that part of the curriculum in this school is to include such dynamic play for the children. i also love that i can be at school and participate in my children's learning experiences. nowadays, the kids and i are butting heads more and more as they mature and grow up more. i try to savor the moments when their eyes still light up at the sight of me while they are at school.

2007 Calendar

something fun to do on the internet! hope this will help me be more organized.

House Rules

while the kids were home over the holidays, Z girl decided to make a list of our house rules. she also made a chart to track who broke the rules. the idea must have came from school since the kids are told about school rules, and the teachers have systems in place to reward the children for following the rules. what's funny is that we actually didn't have that many stated rules at home. she thought up quite a few of them. and as time went on, she kept adding to the list of rules. at last count, there are 17 rules. the kids kept marking X's on each other's chart that they ran out of room in just a few days.